Dolby Laboratories announced today 20 cinemas wordlwide will be able to show Disney-Pixar's 'Brave' in the Dolby Atmos surround sound format. Atmos, reviewed here and here, is Dolby's most advanced and flexible theatrical surround sound format to date. It featuers at least 9.1 discrete audio channels (three front channels, two side channels, two rear channels, two overhead cieling channels, and an LFE channel) with the ability to expand up to 64.4 surround sound depending on cinema auditorium size and specifications. 'Brave', a 3D computer animated fairytale from the braintrust at Pixar, is the first film to be mixed in the ultra-immersive formatwhen the film releases on June 22, 2012. Dolby plans to equip 1,000 movie theatres with Atmos by summer 2013, but for now, you'll have to travel to select cities. Check below to see if any of your local cinemas ...

Dish Network recently announced a very cool new DVR called The Hopper. Your DVR may have the ability to jump ahead 30 seconds and allow you to skip through commercials fairly quickly, but the Hopper can do away with them completely. Its functionality is a bit limited at the moment – it only works for the major networks and it doesn't work until 24 hours after the program airs. Once it does though, you simply have to make sure the commercial skipping feature is enabled, then sit back and enjoy.

It's that time of year again. 2012 has begun and it's time for everyone in the electronics business to show off everything they're bringing to market. First up from the Consumer Electronics Show is Samsung, who unveiled, among other things, a 55" OLED TV. Samsung is the second company to announce a 55" OLED this year with LG being the first. Like LG's set it's incredibly thin and boasts crystal clear images, a response time that's too small for even the most observant of people to notice and a ludicrous contrast. Sadly, also like LG's set, Samsung's new 55" OLED doesn't have a price attached. All we know right now is that it's coming sometime this year.

Though Google TV had a rocky start it's showing some signs of improvement. It's also becoming more widely adopted which is a good thing for a platform that's trying to woo more customers and developers. LG is the latest to announce a Google TV infused television - one that they'll be showing at CES next week.

Sony is a company that's really trying to turn things around, and at the head of that movement is CEO Phil Molyneux. He's been in position for 14 months and he's already starting to see things improve. Black Friday sales were particularly strong. Numbers aren't in for every store yet, but Sony Store sales were up a significant 20 percent. Calls to their online service also increased significantly, which is a good sign. Molyneux gives a lot of credit for the sales increase to Blu-ray players which he calls "a phenomenal success."